1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for removing or harvesting fruit and more particularly to an apparatus that will harvest fruit especially from narrow fruit growing canopies by pressing the fruit out of the production canopy.
2. Description of the Art
Conventional fruit harvesters use an inertia shaker to remove fruit from trees. These harvesters do not physically contact the fruit. However, damage can occur with this mode of action because of movement of both the three limbs and the fruit during detachment. Other types of fruit removal apparatus have also been described. For example, one type is inserted into the fruiting canopy and hooks around the fruit and rakes the fruit off while being pulled out of the canopy, a second type has a number of equally spaced fingers lying in the same plane that are raked through the outer fruiting canopy of trees to strip off the fruit, and a third type has a series of rods of varying designs usually in a square pattern that are inserted into the fruiting canopy and remove fruit by rotating or reciprocating the rods.